Start the New Year with Robust and Succulent Israeli Merlot, Part 1 (K)

Many describe Israeli Merlot as robust and powerful; others hardly distinguish them from Cabernet Sauvignon in blind tasting. But all agree that they are GREAT. With so many wonderful wines to sample in one night, we decided to conduct a two part survey of Kosher Israeli Merlot... Join us for the two-part series and pay only $65.All wines and foods, during the tasting, are Kosher.

Sit back, relax and join other wine lovers at the Israeli Wine of the Month Club’s interactive wine tasting experience.

What is interactive wine tasting?

* Several wonderful Israeli wines will be explored. Cheese, crackers, fruit and organic hummus also served.* Our panel will describe each wine and guide you in exercising your palate tasting them* You will be encouraged to voice your opinion about each wine and write elaborate notes -- be Robert Parker, Tom Stevenson or Daniel Rogov for a night... Every opinion counts !* We will collect everyone’s tasting notes and distribute them via a newsletter. The newsletter will also include professional tasting notes as well as detailed descriptions of the wineries, and more...

As I mentioned many times, each event has its own character, but all are equally fun. This event was GREAT for a lot of reasons but most importantly because of the guests, a few not members yet... Everyone was engaged in the conversation and we heard a lot of descriptions and opinions about the wines. We also had a surprise guest (Oded), a 2nd year winemaking student that happened to be in New York. Oded was "drafted" to our Panel for the evening.

The wines were great and we had two blind tastings -- Barkan Classic vs Barkan Reserve, and Gamla 2005 vs a pre-release 2009 -- to start the evening. More to come in the 2nd part of the series on Jan 13, 2011.

A special treat was Elizabeth Bland, who runs the Cheese meetup, that gave us an amazing tutorial on Kosher cheeses.

The rest of the Panel was amazing as usual -- we are getting used to such high quality and knowledgeable presentation.

Great group! Also, I loved the way Lauren (sp?) set up the cheese table. It was fun hearing about all the wines from so many knowledgeable people. The group was extremely friendly and not shy to share ideas and opinions about the wines.

We're about:

Meet fellow Israeli-Wine Enthusiasts like you in a casual, easy-going and fun atmosphere! Come to our Metro New York City meetups to taste exciting Israeli wines - just great wines that overcome the sweet, sacramental wine stereotype. We respect everyone and follow a simple rule -- don't mix Kosher with non-Kosher wines -- so all wines and foods are Kosher during a Kosher tasting. Non-Kosher tastings are marked with NK in the announcements. Everyone is encouraged to voice his/her opinion about the wine - no right or wrong.... Our Panel include a few wine experts and a chef and we voice our opinion about each wine as well. You will learn about noses and tastes, medium or full-bodies, elegant and robust, and about the winemaking process. Find out about other Israeli wine related events. Everyone's welcome, from new bouquet-sniffers to educated connoisseurs, from all walks of life and from different backgrounds.